With Frances Meyer, Program Coordinator and Team Lead at the Women’s Business Hub (WBH).
Frances immigrated to Saskatoon from the Philippines 17 years ago and has launched and run several succesful businesses since 2008.
Frances organizes and facilitates business programs for immigrant women entrepreneurs with the WBH team. In her free time, she offers business and life coaching. She specializes in trauma-informed mindset and business mentorship, with a strong focus on helping women lead with confidence and create soul-aligned businesses. Her mission is to empower women to lead with awareness, stability, and support, enabling them to build lives and businesses that allow them to thrive and succeed in their creative endeavors, while also cultivating a fulfilling life in Canada.
Transcript
00:00:01 Andrea
Hello and welcome to Alright, Now What? I’m your host, Andrea Gunraj from the Canadian Women’s Foundation.
Gender equality and justice where we live, work, learn, and play is the goal. And it makes life better for everyone. This podcast is our chance to connect with insightful people and explore what it’ll take to get there in Canada.
The work of the Canadian Women’s Foundation and our partners takes place on traditional First Nations, Métis, and Inuit territories. We are grateful for the opportunity to meet and work on this land. However, we recognize that land acknowledgments are not enough. We need to pursue truth, reconciliation, decolonization, and allyship in an ongoing effort to make right with all our relations.
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00:01:30 Andrea
Today, I’m interviewing Frances Meyer.
Frances is a dedicated mom who immigrated to Saskatoon from the Philippines 17 years ago. She built multiple businesses, including a clothing business and daycare. She became known for mentoring and empowering women, teaching them how to grow thriving businesses from home.
Frances serves as the Women’s Business Hub Program Coordinator and Team Lead, organizing and facilitating business programs for immigrant women entrepreneurs. In her free time, she offers business and life coaching.
I start by asking Frances to do the Gender Equality Changemaker quiz we launched earlier this year as part of our new Count Me In initiative for a gender-equal Canada. Please check it out yourself at yescountmein.ca.
What kind of gender equality changemaker are you? Love to hear your results and what you thought about it.
00:02:25 Frances
I enjoyed taking this quiz.
I definitely rated a 40% or more on that Creator part. And then it was like a tie between the Connector and Collaborator.
So that one — I’m not shocked, for one. So I’ve always believed that, you know, creativity is also a business endeavor. So I’ve always been a business person — so I’m not surprised that, you know, creating change and something new is always generating new ideas and following through.
So, that was a fun one. And then, of course, collaborating, and I think the other one was… Connector?
One of my passions is actually getting people together, because I believe that when you put people together in the same like-mindedness, in the same room, you can really generate new ideas or even amplify the same messaging, right?
So, like — I like that engagement, being around people who can speak passionately about the same thing. And so yeah, the Collaborator and connecting — Connector, that is — was really a good piece.
00:03:31 Andrea
So I guess collaborating and connecting are really great business skills, and they’re probably life lessons as well, too — that you probably learned this, maybe from a young age, and you brought it forward into everything you do now.
So, I’d love to hear your sense of any core life lessons that you bring today into the project of doing feminist business and ultimately pursuing gender equality in what you do.
00:03:57 Frances
I believe, you know, the things that we — that led us to the things that we do now are really our experiences of the past. And what we get to learn through that, the challenges, is what we get to share as well, so that people, you know, now experiencing it don’t have to struggle in order to thrive in the endeavors that they are doing.
So, part of the many of the core life lessons that I have experienced through here — and I can name a few — is, you know, I am an immigrant woman here in Canada.
I’ve been — I moved here about 17 years ago from the Philippines with nothing but my suitcase and a vision of the future, as you can say. Many — like, many of us who have also moved to different places, these are one of those key components.
But less than a year — in just less than a year after that, I became a mother.
And so my priorities have changed. Typically, you move here as a woman; you are like, “oh, I want to buy a house, get a job, make new friends, get, you know — get involved.”
But those, you know — being a mother changes your perspective in life as well, and your priorities, where your focus are at.
And that really kind of helped give me a sense of purpose, but also a different kind of awareness.
And now, my kids are 16 and 13. But, you know, like, over time, because of this shift and change in my life — helped me pursue entrepreneurship, so that I can, you know, choose to stay at home, so I can be present with them.
And I know being a feminist, you know, business owner, that is a lot of the core ideals of what we do, what is important for us, what kind of purpose our business is going to achieve while also navigating different roles, different dynamics — or maybe just a sense of how, what are the different ways that we can do life while we are also doing being a mother, and being an immigrant, and, you know, being an impact to your community at the same time.
But, you know, over those times, you know, the most recent core life lesson for me is now I am currently a divorced single mom.
So, a really big, giant change in my life, but also resonating in terms of the impact of gender equality, and the impact of entrepreneurship.
Because of all of those things that I have experienced, I’m able to share why it’s important to have a sense of control in our lives through our own businesses, to having our own sense of impact on the things that we do, and that there might be other ways of doing it while being a mom.
And, you know, like, maybe making sure that we don’t have to go through it the hard way, because there are opportunities — things that Canadian Women’s Foundation’s is doing or on my end with Saskatoon Open Door, that we are doing — to help us go through these life lessons, and still learning the life lessons without having to struggle.
So these things help me make an impact in my work, but also having again a bigger perspective about things, and creating more awareness of the importance of all of these for our women, and all of our, you know, community as well.
00:07:28 Andrea
What I appreciate about what you said is, you’re sharing why feminist business has to be more than just business. And… business is always more than just business, but sometimes we don’t have the language to attach to it.
So when we were at the Feminist Business Summit, I got a sense that a lot of people in that room might have been saying some — “oh, some light bulb moments. I am a feminist entrepreneur. I wouldn’t have used that word before, but now I realize that’s what I’m trying to do. I’m trying to do more than business. I’m trying to create the kind of life, and the kind of community, and the kind of world I want to live in while I’m doing business.”
Tell me a little bit more about your passion for feminist entrepreneurship and small business, and how you see that connecting into the bigger goal of gender equality that here at the Canadian Women’s Foundation, we’re all for.
00:08:16 Frances
Well, you said something to me earlier about, you know, a different way of doing things.
And… this is what I’m passionate about, is to show women and, you know, our community that there are many different ways to do things to make an impact, to — you know, it’s not just about the end goal of making money, but you can actually feel good while getting paid for the things that you create and do.
And so, you know, my passions about business entrepreneurship, and then also being a woman in general while we’re doing this, is coming from that.
Like, you have a sense of control and pride about the things that you are creating, right? Like, the entrepreneurship is feeling that you are making something purposeful.
And… you’re not just a mom, you’re not just a woman, you’re not just, like, a person who goes to a 9 to 5.
You can be who you want to be and feel good about it.
And I think that’s, you know, for me — my passion about, you know, feminist entrepreneurship, and just having that fairness and equality in general, is having the understanding that there are opportunities for all of us.
And when you have a sense of pride in the things that you do, you can open that opportunity, because now you’re feeling a little bit more receptive to what you’re capable of, and a sense of empowerment as well when you’re doing something for yourself that is also creating an impact to others.
So, to me, when I talk about, you know, entrepreneurship — and not just from my own experience — and how that elevated my experience as a mom, how that helped me have a sense of self while I was, you know, focused, you know — 99% figuring out what it’s like to raise kids. But at the same time, oh, I have this other creative endeavour that’s actually also taking my kids to their soccer tournaments, because I can, right?
So a lot of, like, this entrepreneurship ideals, and the things that we do, it’s not just because we want to make money — because we also want the impact that it creates for us in our family.
And then also stimulating the economy at the same time, because we can afford to do the extras. And… it elevates the experience, because now it feels like, “oh, I’m doing something different.”
And I believe, you know, when we’re talking about gender equality, it’s always a big sense of change. And — and same with entrepreneurship, it takes a radical mindset to do something different — like, I don’t have to just be this, I can also do this.
And I think that’s really, really empowering for many, many of us here when we can have that choice, in terms of entrepreneurship, and then having a sense of like, “oh, I can actually be myself, which is my values, my belief system, and what’s important for me at the same time, and creating something fun, and still making money.” Like, the money is the byproduct of all of the things that we do too, right?
So that’s, you know, like — that’s really where my passions come from. And I share that with others, and, you know, encouraging them to, like, explore what that’s going to be like, because it — for me, it started out of, like, an idea, 17 years ago, and it started out of the shift in my life.
So, if you keep following that, you know, idea and creativity, you don’t know where it would lead you, but it might lead you to something more beautiful, or empowering, or maybe a different sense of perspective that you may not have seen yet.
And I think that’s really important in terms of gender equality, and having that sense of, like, belongingness as well that we fight for. We want to be part of something, we want to be recognized for it as well.
So that’s where my passion comes from with regards to — and that’s what we talked about at the summit, it’s, like, really just having that impact and collaboration and community and network that speaks volumes into who we are as people.
00:12:38 Andrea
For me, I find that… just this basic idea, “I want to contribute, I want to be part of something bigger than myself, I want to be part of something good with other people” — that is literally every human desire. I believe that is the heart of human rights.
And if we were just to look at it, kind of, just from that level of what we want as people, I think you’re speaking to something really deep there.
And I wonder: for you as an entrepreneur, you had a great idea, and you wanted to build a life that you could actually sustain, and you wanted to be a part of something bigger.
What kind of help did you get? What kind of help and support did you wish you had at the time?
00:13:23 Frances
Well, this is definitely one of the importance of our programming and the projects that we do, you know, working together with CWF, is that if I had, you know, the support, the community, the mentorship, the programs, the business programs that we offer now, back then, I would have thrived in the efforts that I was doing without having to figure it on my own.
And I think that’s really important to hear for us women as well, is that, you know, we probably feel like we have to do things and figure it out on our own, always thinking on our feet, and basically feeling like, “oh, I have to just take care of myself.”
But, at the same time, there’s a huge community out there that our projects, our programming is available now, and ready to kind of help and support.
Because if I had the mentorship that we are offering now, the programs to help — I would say streamline, but really just guide into a direction where you don’t have to trial and error every single time, that not only saves you time, but it also helps you eliminate a lot of, like, the noise.
And I think that’s, you know, like, really why we do the things we do now, is so that we can help you thrive even more than what I had to go through, or what other people who’s been through the path and doing it for others this time around. It’s like, we understand what the struggle was like.
So you don’t — you can learn the lesson, but you don’t have to struggle as hard as we did in order to get there, to get to your end goal.
00:15:10 Andrea
I guess that’s the thing that’s happening nowadays.
I hear a lot of people talking about entrepreneurship. I hear a lot of women, particularly racialized women, speaking about their desire to get into this kind of stuff, and that lesson of not having to do it alone, and that there are other people who have gone through it and can support you, and are willing — more than willing to help you.
That’s so powerful.
I want to ask you this last question: is there one important takeaway that you would give to listeners right now to help them — maybe they’re looking to think about entrepreneurship in their life. Maybe they just want to be a better gender equality changemaker in their own day-to-day life.
What would you share with them to take away from this — all this wonderful stuff that you’re sharing right now?
00:15:54 Frances
I know there’s a lot of different things, tools, strategies we can give them, right?
But there’s one very important one that I had to learn myself, because I understand that change is challenging. I understand that it can be scary to even do something bold and different than your best friend, or your parents, or your mother has done before.
So, my advice would be — and this is coming from the belief where everything starts with yourself, in your inner work. Everything else outside of you is also going to reflect the work that you’ve done for you. So my advice is to have that steadfast faith in yourself, and trust your own judgment.
So, because to me, it takes courage to step and take that leap.
But you have to take that leap.
You have to trust yourself that you’re going to be okay, that you will be — you know, you’re going to have that soft landing, even if you don’t see it fully just yet.
So, when you’re making big decisions in life, no matter what stages you are in your own perspective — I became a mom, I didn’t know what I was doing; I became a single, divorced mom, I didn’t know what I was doing.
But I had to make those strong decisions for myself, because I knew I deserve better.
In order to get there, I have to trust myself every single time, every single moment, to make those big decisions.
So learn to trust yourself, learn to have more faith in yourself, in order to move forward.
And if you really want to succeed into something different, something like entrepreneurship — what your idea might be small right now, or what might be feeling like it’s seemingly insignificant, but when you follow that, and you trust that you’re going to be okay while you’re following your joy, it’s likely going to surprise you, or it’s likely going to show you something different.
And again, you know, when you trust yourself and have faith in yourself, and you ask yourself — the question is like: what could go right? Right?
What could go right if I make this choice for myself? Because I deserve better.
So that’s my — that’s my, I suppose, takeaway for anyone, no matter what stage and age you are, as you’re exploring this — it’s like, just follow that little guidance in yourself, trust your intuition, and keep moving along in that pace, and you will be okay.
00:18:35 Andrea
Alright, Now What?
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